The Chicago and Milwaukee Railway was a predecessor of the Chicago and North Western Railway

Chicago and North Western Railway

The Chicago and North Western Transportation Company was a Class I railroad in the Midwest United States. It was also known as the North Western. The railroad operated more than of track as of the turn of the 20th century, and over of track in seven states before retrenchment in the late 1970s...

 (C&NW) in the U.S. state

U.S. state

A U.S. state is any one of the 50 federated states of the United States of America that share sovereignty with the federal government. Because of this shared sovereignty, an American is a citizen both of the federal entity and of his or her state of domicile. Four states use the official title of...

s of Illinois

Illinois

Illinois is the fifth-most populous state of the United States of America, and is often noted for being a microcosm of the entire country. With Chicago in the northeast, small industrial cities and great agricultural productivity in central and northern Illinois, and natural resources like coal,...

 and Wisconsin

Wisconsin

Wisconsin is a U.S. state located in the north-central United States and is part of the Midwest. It is bordered by Minnesota to the west, Iowa to the southwest, Illinois to the south, Lake Michigan to the east, Michigan to the northeast, and Lake Superior to the north. Wisconsin's capital is...

.

The Illinois portion was chartered on February 17, 1851 as the Illinois Parallel Railroad. Its charter permitted construction of a 44.6 mile rail line northward from Chicago through Waukegan, Illinois

Waukegan, Illinois

Waukegan is a city and county seat of Lake County, Illinois. As of the 2000 census, the city had a total population of 87,901. The 2010 population was 89,078. It is the ninth-largest city in Illinois by population...

 to Wisconsin

Wisconsin

Wisconsin is a U.S. state located in the north-central United States and is part of the Midwest. It is bordered by Minnesota to the west, Iowa to the southwest, Illinois to the south, Lake Michigan to the east, Michigan to the northeast, and Lake Superior to the north. Wisconsin's capital is...

 paralleling Lake Michigan

Lake Michigan

Lake Michigan is one of the five Great Lakes of North America and the only one located entirely within the United States. It is the second largest of the Great Lakes by volume and the third largest by surface area, after Lake Superior and Lake Huron...

 at a distance of no less than ten miles from the lake's west shore. The IPRR's board first met on September 9, 1851. On February 5, 1853, the line's name became the Chicago and Milwaukee Railroad, and construction reached Waukegan on December 19, 1854.

In a major ceremony in Kenosha, Wisconsin

Kenosha, Wisconsin

Kenosha is a city and the county seat of Kenosha County in the State of Wisconsin in United States. With a population of 99,218 as of May 2011, Kenosha is the fourth-largest city in Wisconsin. Kenosha is also the fourth-largest city on the western shore of Lake Michigan, following Chicago,...

 on Saturday May 19, 1855, the line was connected with the Green Bay, Milwaukee and Chicago Railroad (chartered March 13, 1851 in Wisconsin; renamed Milwaukee and Chicago Railroad on March 6, 1857), also exactly 44.6 miles in length. The Chicago and Milwaukee and Milwaukee and Chicago Railroads merged on June 22, 1863, to form the Chicago and Milwaukee Railway.

The Northwestern Union Railway was merged into this company on January 11, 1881, and on April 12, 1881, it merged with the Milwaukee and Madison Railway and Sheboygan and Western Railway to form the Chicago, Milwaukee and North Western Railway, which was absorbed into the C&NW in June 1883.